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by YuechenLi1 days ago |

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by diath1 days ago|

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Why is it surprising? This is essentially a pre-built PC in a small form factor and most PC peripherals are USB-A.

by Reubachi1 days ago|

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My 4 year old (maybe 5?) work laptop has 3 usb C ports. My macbook is all usb c, and my home media/gaming PC has a mix and match.

All my cables I would connect to my home PC/macbook are USB C. IE bluetooth adaptor, sd card adaptor, external ssd, mouse/keyboard, a soundbar etc.

I have several chinesium clones of dewalt batteries/tools, IE lights, compressors etc. They all have USB c output.

"most pc perihpials are USB-A" is not exactly correct for some time now. (not that I'm a fan.)

by amlib20 hours ago|

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That's because you've been making a concerned effort to buy usb-c stuff. The average consumer has way more usb-a stuff than usb-c, even more so when talking about pc desktop users.

I even bet many mac users wished their device had a usb-a port or two in order to not be so dependent on adapters, hubs and docks.

by inigyou1 days ago|

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USB C ports cost a lot more, needing extra controller chips and special HCIs. USB-A, especially 2.0, is dead cheap. I would've expected more than 3 though? Standard consoles used to support 4 controllers, plus you'd probably want a mouse and keyboard at the same time if it's also a PC. I guess it's fine if you're assumed to be using wireless controllers.

by YuechenLi23 hours ago|

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Not quite right, USB-C ports are generally cheaper nowadays because they are smaller, consumes less material for plastic/metal, more easily automatable production wise in terms of tooling, and scale for them is a lot higher because of mobile usage. You don't really need extra production chips since the console USB-C ports are designed for PD and crippled 14/16 pin versions that only supports the USB 2.0 speed, because the high-speed pins literally do not exist on those.

by inigyou21 hours ago|

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You forgot all the extra signaling that type C ports have? Nobody wants a type C port that only does USB 2.0.

by YuechenLi21 hours ago|

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They are extremely common actually. Why do you think the standard iPhones only does USB 2.0 transfer speed? The high-speed signal pins are simply not there, but the connectors themselves are still standard compliant.

Lower transfer rate means less shielding is needed for the cable as well as the overmold, and enables longer and more flexible cables, as extra shielding stiffens the cables.

by LoganDark15 hours ago|

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> Why do you think the standard iPhones only does USB 2.0 transfer speed?

Because they saved die space in silicon? Same reason the MacBook Neo only has a single USB 3 and a USB 2. It seems that their A-series Pro silicon only has hardware for a single USB 3, and their non-Pro silicon doesn't even have it at all. I highly doubt they are sparing pins from the connector, the complexity of making a special port variant for that far surely outweighs any potential savings.

by retired11 hours ago|

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Serial and PS2 is even cheaper to implement than USB yet I’m happy that we removed those ports in favor of something modern.

by weberer16 hours ago|

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Conversely, my Logitech wireless keyboard and trackpad needs this stupid receiver that they only make a USB-A version of.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logitech_Unifying_receiver

by retired11 hours ago|

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One of the many reasons not to buy Logitech.

by everforward19 hours ago|

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New stuff does, but most of my peripherals aren't new. A couple are a decade old and probably pre-date USB-C being standardized.

I am semi-frequently annoyed that my laptop has 0 USB-A ports. At least give me one.

by Eric_WVGG23 hours ago|

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I haven’t seen a new product with USB-A in years. It’s long past time to move on.

by topgrain222 hours ago|

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I just bought a few 8bitdo controllers, wired and bluetooth, both. These are basically the best-bang-for-the-buck low- to mid-priced controllers around, super-popular in gaming circles. Best you'll get without bumping up to modern 1st party console controllers at $70+ each. I bought these within the last 30 days.

The wired controller is USB-A. The bluetooth controllers "are" USB-C... but came with A-to-C cables, not C-to-C.

Approximately every time I want to plug something in to my laptop that's not a charging cable for another device, it's USB-A.

by jabroni_salad23 hours ago|

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This past calendar year I bought a new document scanner, controller, mouse, and DAC that all came with usb-A on the computer end of the included cable. On the peripheral side, I must not have done enough research on 'new' products because only the DAC and mouse have USB-C. Brother's document scanners in 2026 ship with the incredibly horrible usb-3-micro-b and the controller uses a low latency wireless dongle on usb-a.

by NikolaNovak21 hours ago|

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Keyboard, printer, mouse, joystick, scanner,color calibrator, steering wheel, game controller , everything I bought recently other than external ssd was usb a. Even, shockingly, a nice Scarlett audio interface!

More to the point, anything I'd want to plug in to a gaming machine, is usb a.

by whyoh23 hours ago|

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You must be living in some (Apple?) bubble.

Most new gaming mice and keyboards sold in 2026 use USB A. Not to mention all the older ones that still work.

by topgrain222 hours ago|

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I can vouch for this still not really being true even in Apple-land, since almost any peripheral, external disk, printer, whatever, that I'll want to plug in isn't gonna be from Apple.

In 2026 the single most useful port to add to my Macs would be USB-A, with no close competition. On any device with 2+ USB-C ports, it'd easily be worth sacrificing a USB-C to get a USB-A.

by Gigachad21 hours ago|

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Pretty much the only things I plug in to my computer are a monitor which is usb c. And my external ssd which is usb c.

Most devices have a cable that’s fully replaceable so you can choose to use C to C or C to A but basically everything has usb C on the device end.

by whyoh21 hours ago|

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>basically everything has usb C on the device end

Yes, but we're talking about the ports on the Steam Machine, so the host end is what matters. And gaming peripherals are likely even more skewed towards USB A, because Macs are not the main target for that.

by Gigachad20 hours ago|

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If it has USB-C on one end then you can use a C to C cable or a C to A so it doesn't really matter. It's not a show stopper either way but I've long wanted to slim down my birds nest of cables. Since my laptop and phone are USB-C I can get by with C to C cables only so I probably wouldn't get a computer that required me to double the number of cables I have to keep.

by asdff22 hours ago|

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Tell that to logitech.

by krzyk23 hours ago|

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No?

The only PC peripheral I have with USB-A is a mouse dongle when I'm lazy and don't connect bluetooth - and that one I connect to the monitor.

All others are usb-c.

by whyoh21 hours ago|

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That might be the case for you. But if I search for USB mouse or keyboard on Amazon they're mostly USB A on the host end. And desktop PCs still have way more USB A than USB C ports. Macs are an exception.

by mort961 days ago|

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A USB-C PD power supply which supports 130W is probably gonna be more expensive than whatever power supply they're using now...

by Gigachad22 hours ago|

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There’s also the issue that users would plug in their own random usb power supplies and most of them wouldn’t work. Some would work for 15 minutes before overheating and lowering the power output.

by TiredOfLife21 hours ago|

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And steam machine uses almost double that.

by OkayPhysicist21 hours ago|

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Xbox 360 controllers (and their knock-offs) are still extremely common choices for PC gamers who want a controller. Xbox because they have good windows plug-and-play, 360 because there are still plenty of $20-ish dollar ones available, as opposed to the ~$40-50 range for the Xbox One controllers.

Wired Xbox 360 controllers (and most of their off brand alternatives) have a non-removable USB-A cable.

by cassianoleal20 hours ago|

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There's plenty of cheap adapters for these use cases.

by Acrobatic_Road19 hours ago|

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Series X controllers are easily worth that extra $20-$30 for the jump in quality.

by makeitdouble21 hours ago|

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These are USB3-A, so USB3-A to USB-C cables will properly work at full potential for any of your USB-C peripherals.

It's a bummer if have none of these cables around, but it's still more elegant than adapting USB3-A stuff to USB-C.

by TiredOfLife21 hours ago|

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Steam machine uses about 200W. Can you even buy any 240W pd power bricks. Quick search on amazon shows that all that advertise 240w can only output 140w max on single cable

by Gigachad18 hours ago|

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It took me a bit of digging but Framework sells a single port 240w USB-C charger https://frame.work/au/en/products/power-adapter-240w?v=FRAKM...

That said I would not trust this as a PSU for a computer which uses almost all the available power output and does not have it's own internal battery. Most USB-C chargers are not designed to run at 100% capacity for extended periods and could not handle sudden spikes over the rated capacity. Even for desktop PSUs you always want to get something that has a good headroom over the actual power draw for stability.